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ability Develops a Hilton Garden Inn at Luton Airport

London, 23 October 2009 – The Ability Group (‘Ability’), the diversified private property company led by Andreas Panayiotou, is developing a 250-bedroom hotel on a prime site next to London Luton Airport. The hotel is to be operated by Hilton Worldwide as a Hilton Garden Inn.

Ability's Hilton Garden Inn, Luton

The property is located on Kimpton Road, just five minutes’ walk from the airport terminal building and next to Luton Parkway railway station. Development of the site will start later in the year and the hotel is scheduled to open in 2011. Ability has appointed MDA Consultants as project managers.

The development is Ability’s fifth project with Hilton and the seventh in its hotel portfolio. In 2007, Ability and Hilton launched the UK’s first Doubletree by Hilton, in Cambridge, and last month opened the Doubletree by Hilton Dunblane Hydro. The companies are presently working on future hotel openings in Liverpool and Syon Park in west London.

As well as the brand’s custom Garden Sleep System bed, each guestroom will feature a spacious desk with the ergonomic Herman Miller Mirra® chair, air conditioning, an LCD satellite television and a hospitality centre with a mini refrigerator and kettle.

The hotel will offer five flexible meeting spaces and a larger function room, as well as on-site parking for up to 240 vehicles.

Once completed, the hotel will create up to 70 jobs for the local community.

Andreas Panayiotou, Ability’s group chairman, says: “This is a superb location at the heart of Luton’s regeneration projects, next to the fast-growing airport and Luton Parkway station. Hilton Garden Inn offers high-quality and thoughtful amenities to travellers and I’m sure will be very well received here. We are delighted to add the Hilton Garden Inn brand to our hotel portfolio.”

Patrick Fitzgibbon, senior vice president of development for Europe & Africa at Hilton, says: “We welcome this further growth in our partnership with The Ability Group, which has demonstrated huge commitment to the Hilton Family of Hotel brands.”

Marc has over 20 years’ international PR experience gained at leading agencies and in-house. He has specialised in aviation and travel for a decade, devising and overseeing successful international PR programmes and building 80:20 Communications into an acclaimed sector specialist.